This small unnamed peak lies just north of the Hop Valley trail about three miles from the trailhead. Commanding little attention, few probably even recognize it as a ranked summit. It does, however, have several hundred feet of prominence and actually packs a huge punch for its size. Back in 2010 Dom, CP, DB & I made an unsuccessful attempt at what we've come to refer to as "Hop Valley Peak", for lack of a better moniker. Later CP returned and found a key weakness we'd overlooked which he reportedly "overcame by a shoulder stand to a helmet jam".

This time around Dom, AA & I failed to find that curious route described by CP, instead forcing our way up sutained low 5th class terrain on the east side. When going down became a worse proposition than going up, AA ended up running it out on 150 feet of loose, sustained 5.6ish terrain! The descent required four rappels with our single 60 meter rope and probably took just as long as the upclimb. You could say we got our money's worth on this one!

This small, unnamed summit near the start of the Hop Valley trail is our objective.

Over a tree and to a dead end we go.

There's the summit but a deep gash separates us from it. Back down we go.

We traverse to the east side of the peak and start brute forcing our way up.

What Dom is pulling on in the previous picture.

AA backs off a spicy chute.

Dom thrashes up a tight chimney.

AA dances up the chimney and out comes the rope. This is getting serious.

The look that says: "Shit, did I really just lead up 150 feet of sustained, loose 5.6 rock with no pro?"

Bush pullin' atop the technical difficulties.

Dom leads the easy scramble as we approach the summit.

The summit is on the far right behind the trees.

View toward Firepit Knoll from the summit.

View northwest toward Burnt Mountain (left).

Dom & AA enjoying our heavenly break spot just below the windy summit.

Reluctanty we begin our descent.

We explore the south side of the peak for a better descent option.

There appear to be nothing but tall cliffs below. And we've got a single 60m rope.

Dom prepares to rappel from a tree in the vicinity of our ascent route on the east side.

Our 2nd rappel is from a bush and its not clear whether our rope is long enough.

See that deep offwidth crack way below Andy? We climbed that on the way up.

Dom starts our third rappel into a slot. AA cleaned the anchor and downclimbed last.

The slot turns out to be quite tight!

Exploring down the slot.

Some thoughtful friction moves.

AA's loving it.

Final rappel from the pile of shit jammed into the bottom of the slot.

Rapping through a tree turns out to be sorta awkward.

Parting shot of the peak. Doesn't look like much, but this bugger doesn't give it up easily.